Solution to sand in drone motors (DJI mini 3 pro)
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- Опубликовано: 20 авг 2024
- Interdental brushes are the single best tool to repair crunchy motors after a crash in sand.
Drone footage: Atacama desert, Chile (December 2022).
Filmed on a Pixel 7 pro.
Thank you for making such a succinct, to-the-point video with absolutely zero BS and no clickbait!
You covered everything perfectly, with both dialog and video. Two minutes twenty four seconds. That's what I call efficient!
Best of luck to you in your droning activities!
Thanks a lot!
That's what I was aiming for, I hate these long drawn videos with context noone needs.
I'll try to tune my mike a bit better for any next videos though !
So true! When I was the the 2:25 video I was like "this got to be a video telling that he is going to upload the actual explanation on another video" but no! Straight to the point! I missed videos like this! Thank you so much man
#1 - You're not dumb. You had a crash. Crashes happen to the best pilots. #2 - You shared some valuable information with the rest of us, which makes you more of a hero, than dumb. Thank you for sharing your experience, what you tried, what worked, and what didn't. I live in Utah. We have LOTS of sand here. I may just need to be doing this procedure some day in the near future...
Thank you for taking the trouble to record and post this video - very valuable advice that worked well for you - and should work well for anyone else experiencing a similar misfortune
What a lovely comment. Thank you!
Excellent result. It sounded awful with the sand grinding in there. Glad you managed to fix it, and thanks for the tip!
I regularly fly on a construction site and also have crashed in dense dust, general air dusting did the job. Never experience jammed motors, however if ever it happens, now I know what to do. Thanks and cheers 👍🏼
Idk why I didn't think of canned air. I've had a drone sitting on the shelf for a year but got it fixed with your help. Thank you!
one of the reasons DIY drones are so much better is you can take the bell off the stator and clean them out easily. you did a great job fixing an "unfix able" drone!
And if you cannot fully clean the ferrous sand particles off the magnets, you can choose to replace the motor bell only.
How you can take off the bell? Just pulling?
There is a disassembly video here on RUclips that should help you
My drone landed vertically, ending with 2 arms in the sand after failed hand catch. I worked on it for 2 and a half hours, but now it works again. Great video, thanks a lot.
Extra tip; buy the ultra thin wooden tooth picks. Then position the gap between magnets in front of the coils. The ultra thin wooden tooth picks, fit in the gap so you can clean between the coil and the rotating part.
Im a noob after my first ever flight i cleaned mine with a tooth brush & washing up liquid. I think washing liquid got in motor its sticking & sometimes stops.
Im glad i seen this video i know what I can do now
Thank you, you saved me 2 weeks and a lot of money. I had same problem with my Mavic 3. I tried all the methods. I poured alcohol on it and tried it with a toothbrush, but the plastic tips of the brush got stuck between the motor windings. Still, no sand came out. Finally, I put distilled water in a bowl, completely immersed the engine in it and took it out, and the grain of sand was gone. I vacuumed the water with a vacuum cleaner. I flew for half an hour and dried it completely.
Thank you very much, I can confirm this trick is working on my DJI MINI, the rotors got beach sand. For those of you who is looking for the name of the Brush it's INTERDENTAL BRUSH - can easily be found on your local convenience store, I got mine from my local pharmacist.
Thank you for the informative video, which I used to clean my drone, which crashed by my carelessness, when I hit a big tree and fell on the beach into the sand and on the coral. Thank God not into the sea. I have cleaned it as per your instructions, it is flying normally with no problem. Greetings from the Dominican Republic...
I was so close to sending my drone back for repair but luckily I ran across your video and you saved my drone's life!! Cheers!! Forgot to mention, I have an airbrush and was able to use the cleaning brushes from that.
I'm very happy to hear that!
Thanks for the nice comment:)
thanks and hello from Brazil
When my drone was landing, it slid off the picnic table onto the sand on Lake Michigan and stuck one rotor into the sand. You can imagine how much my drone liked it. The rotor was stuck. Me and my wife used yours method and with one time use dental plastic spiral brushes and air compressor after one hours our drone was in the air again. Thanks for the great tip !
Got some sand in my Mini 3 Pro. My solution was different . Removed the blades from the rotor. Held upside down, and an electrical toothbrush was hold near the motor. Just a small jiggling of the rotor ccw and cw solve the issue in seconds. The vibration made it easy. Could be necessary a helper to hold the toothbrush. Replaced the blades after was clear the grain of sand is not anymore in the motor.
Soins pretty smart ! Good job :)
It worked like a charm thank you!
You can use the a water method by either using a small water sprayer to washout the sand or remove the props like you did, turn it on and take each end and dip it into water and the water with the power of the motor will wash out the sand. (Did this trick with all my RC electric motors for years!) Afterwords spray it clean with Electric Cleaner to get any access water out or you can use the electric cleaner and use to washout all the sand and grit of your electric drone motors. Either way should be fine and whip up any access around the motors. It will dry out and vanish pretty quickly. Always, worked like a champ for me!
Thank you, you saved me 2 weeks and a lot of money. I tried all the methods. I poured alcohol on it and tried it with a toothbrush, but the plastic tips of the brush got stuck between the motor windings. Still, no sand came out. Finally, I put distilled water in a bowl, completely immersed the engine in it and took it out, and the grain of sand was gone. I vacuumed the water with a vacuum cleaner. I flew for half an hour and dried it completely.
Thanks for sharing. Good info. My Mini 3 Pro had a stuck propeller. I went to DJI Singapore. And for it repaired for free because its still under warranty.
I will do like you mentioned once no more warranty. Thanks alot.
thanks man! You literally saved my drone :-) I followed your helps. I had some sand in the gimbal rotors too... it was such a pain in the a$$ but I solved using a toothbrush.
Very happy my advice helped! Fly safe :)
Thanks! One thing that helps, but especially in humidity is to soak the motors in WD-40. It displaces water and humidity and makes almost anything electronic work better. It may have also helped remove that sand is my guess....just a guess....but a fairly educated one. I learned this way back when an organ tech came to our home to fix our organ. He opened the top panel where all the electronic controls were, sprayed them all liberally inside and out with WD-40....as I gasped in horror....and then closed the panel and said, "There! Now it will work perfectly for years to come!" Years later, it was still going strong with not even any scratchiness coming out of the volume adjustment....I've used it on contact plates for air conditioners, boat lift controls, and you name it....amazing!
Thank you for your time making and sharing this very useful video. Very appreciated.
Thanks for the nice comment!
Great video. I always try to learn from others....
Thanks for the tip. I really need to learn how to launch and recover from a hand held state.
If the drone started to act erratically, there might have been an issue with the drone itself. My friend had a Mini 3 Pro that all of a suddenly crashed into a lake he was flying over. He was about 2 meters above, so not that low. He reached out to DJI and they checked his flight logs and decided the drone had some problem and sent him a new one for free, despite not having any DJI Care. Also if there isn't a suitable terrain for landing, I grab mine and turn it around so the propellers stop. Or land on your car :D
In all seriousness though, you demonstrated a great method to clean up grit and foreign material in this type of motor. It no doubt reduced the expected lifespan of these small motors, but they are known to be very reliable over a really long period/number of hours. The loss of even, say 20% of the 3 motors lifetime wouldn't even be noticed by the average drone pilot. Do you have care refresh? It's not very expensive for the Mini Series- I think I paid $79. You could potentially get a replacement/exchange for a nominal fee. Thanks for putting this up!
Very good Tips. 🙂👍👍
Definitely wouldn't say that you're dumb at all I actually made a similar mistake out of excitement where I was flying my drone through a tunnel (I was also walking behind it) because I was trying to get some footage. It ended up hitting one of the walls in the tunnel due to the fact that there wasn't enough ambient light.
I was actually still able to fly but got worried about the sound of dirt particles being in one of the propellers.
I also had a stripped screw in my right propeller so I just decided to send it out and pay for a replacement but if I would have found this video beforehand I would've just cleaned it out and continued on.
Thanks for providing this solution and if I ever have this issue again I'll follow your recommendation.
I think the brush technique and a more high powered compressor should do the trick, but I hope you won't need it ;)!
@@LuWolharn agreed. Going through DJI care was not the easiest thing so I will surely be more careful.
If you find there's a resistance on the motor shaft don't force it to spin, clean it and try to spin slowly repeat until the the shafts spin free, a big landing pad is a must
I had same issue ( crashing on sandy beach). I found that canned air didn’t create enough air pressure. I have a shop compressor with a needle tip nozzle. That afforded adequate air and small enough nozzel to get around the magnets
Very good, thanks for sharing the info and your experience !
im going to the beach taking my drone with me and this video came up, thanks a lot im gonna be very careful with the sand
Enjoy and take care!
You can flush them with distilled water which you can get off Amazon etc. Always hand launch and catch on beaches and you have no issues as it still happens with launch mats. Or if you want to fly at a beach location, take off from the tarmac and fly distance to the beach. Glad you got it working.
Unfortunately my drone just wouldn't land anywhere (Floor, hand, car Roof) so I didn't know what to do. I could have just let the batter run out but I didn't wanna wait 40 min.
@@LuWolharn hey there! Great repair job. On landing issue, you could just catch it by hand and quickly flip it over. This should shut it down.
There are a few things I could have done better 😅
I did this back with my mini 2 but in the video you can see that it was pretty windy so the drone was super jittery and I didn't wanna get cut, which also happened once..
Haha Fight fight fight !
@Martin Jansen yeah missed that but at least I’m not a wank like you
another option might be dip the motor in oil so the friction is lower and blow out the oil,
then you have to rinse well with water and bar soap foam, it disolves oil much better than any gel soap.
I had same problem and fixed it with starter fluid (ether) spray. Using the straw that comes with can I blasted the sand out. This necessitated removal of just the sticker that covers bottom of motor-no tools needed. Only downside is that starting fluid is very flammable so do it outside away from flames.
Nice job on the repair! This is great information.
Great idea. There must be a lot of iron in your sand. Here too. I will give the brush a try.
Thanks for this. I have a set of brushes and didn’t even think to get them out. I got stuck in a tree on my 15th ish flight. My kid got it down somehow but the fall landed it in some wet rasa and now I’ve got dirt everywhere but the camera somehow.
Excellent video!! Thank you!!!
Isopropyl will strip off any coatings on the copper wire, magnets etc. So be sure to monitor for any oxidation and the plastic may be weakened now too because Isopropyl does break down plastic. It will remove the additives in the plastic and cause it to become brittle.
I wonder why isopropyl bottles don't get brittle 🤔
Are u drunk or something?
Iso has been used for many, many years within the electronics industry to clean flux from printed circuit boards following the flow solder process. This means circuit boards fully populated with electronic components (like plastic encased transistors and DIP components) survive being bathed in Iso. Therefore; I do not think you know what you're talking about... maybe you're thinking of Acetone or some other chemical.
You’re thinking of acetone. ISO cleaning of electronics is default.
Ooh that gritty sound!!
Yeah motors and grit don't mix well⚠️
I always launch off a piece of clean cardboard or the box my drone came in and hand catch it.
Never launch or land on the ground, the prop wash will blow up all sorts of debris into your motors.
Good tips on cleaning your motors and glad you fixed it.
I've added your channel, hopefully you'll connect with another Mini drone pilot?
Man I really need to visit this place. It looks so cool.
personally i would recommend to unscrew the motor out, and uses any method stated in the video to clean it, so that the sand do not stays under the motor(not inside) and it will make 100% sure the sand will not go back into the motor
You can't easily open them on the mini 3 pro
My man! Trop satisfaisant qd ils retournent bien smoothles rotors
Haha pareillesszz :D
In the world of FPV drones, when I inevtably end up with sand in my motors, I get them to spin with a little crunch just by forcing it and get rid of the last of the crunch by arming the drone and letting it sit with the props spinning for about 30 seconds. If its really bad you can take apart fpv motors and use Blue-Tac to get the sand off.
That's a great tip. Thank you for posting this video.
You could take the drone with your hand, rotate it and voilà, it would have stop. You could have land it on top of your car too. But it's a great video for those who unfortunately have been through the same thing 👍🏽
Thanks a lot! This is really Useful!
The sound horror sound in the second 32 it makes me cry
Thanks for the advice... and more ideas from the comments. Seems as though landing on hand or rooftop of car will prevent many dust issues.
yep this hapend to me like 3 times and 2 of it during landing it's kinda easy to fix (DJI mini 2) just carefully rotate it and blow it off if that won't help blow it off with compressor it's kinda easy to fix but be carefull so you won't damage the motor with force spining
Thank you very much!!!! You saved me 😊
I found a reliable solution that not only prevents the sand from damaging the coils in a brushless motor, but actually keeps most DJI consumer models, as well as some Autel, Skydio drones from significant damage. Step 1: don't take off from a sandy location, and (very important) Step 2: Don't land at a sandy location. 😉 Failing either condition, use the tips provided in this video to manage the situation.
Hey Lucas. Thanks for sharing this.
Air compressor worked for me.
Edit: do NOT keep turning it if you hear grinding and don't turn it on lol
Thank you for sharing this valuable tip.
Very helpful. Thanks for the video.
Great information, hope i never have to do this on my drone.
Life saver
I have one mini 3 pro, and i had the same problem in one motor, i solve this did put compressed air in motor, in the top, botton, sides and solve this.... today i take on and take off in my hand, with care
0:30 *sees grinding* Ok thats enough. oK thats enough... OK THATS ENUF"
😂😂
Thanks. It saved my mini se
Us FPV guys are all having a silent chuckle
Tks for the tips!
Great video.
Ha! I am watching this video because I too am in the Atacama desert and the drone slid off the hood of my car and sand got in three motors as well. I guess I will be going to the farmacia tomorrow.
Super Helpful Buddy thanks 🙏
А можно просто закрыть движки алюминивой крышкой и все будет хорошо. Особенно если взлетать с руки и на руку сажать... Сажать дрон в песок это плохая идея. Если грязь попадёт в подвес стабилизатора камеры, это будет не очень хорошо.
It's good that I can imitate it.... Thank you👍👍👍 Greetings from one sky
The best and easiest way is to use an actual Air compressor. 120psi. 3 seconds per motor. Spotless.
Spot on :)
This is what worked for me too. Once I got it to where they rotors would turn on their own I again used compressed air from a shop compressor with the rotors turning without props on. That blew out any residual dust and sand particles. The canned air doesn't have enough psi. Blowing them out while running was key.
with this small drones i really don't see an reason not to land to the hand. but it is nice tip for cleaning motors, thanks.
Thank you so much 😉👍
I had some issues with one(i'm not really sure with thich) motor too on Mini 3 Pro and i would get the ERROR ESC bug on screen.
I blew into all 4 motors a contact cleaner spray.
I did good amount but not too much.
I span it manually for few circles and let it dry out.
Now drone starts perfectly well.
You were lucky my friend 😅 but glad it worked 👍
Life saved ✅
POV he actually changed those 3 motors
:D
Me sirvió tu tutorial, pues tuve un accidente así y ahora aplicaré eso
Sirvió el tutorial en tu caso?
good job
Thanks a lot for your video, i have tbe same issur with mine, i'll test that
Ein guter Tip,bei dem man auch Geld spart. Bevor man es teuer einschickt
Much faster way (not sure if it’s ok with dji, I’m flying fpv).
Disassemble the motor (there is only 1 screw) and collect all off the sand with something sticky - even a gum will work fine. Rinse with some alcohol and you ready to go.
And my mini 2 I usually land in my hand in conditions like this
Plus it’s works even with ferromagnetic sand. Worst thing ever! Brushes, air or alcohol won’t help in this case.
Thanks for that. I haven't had the problem but often had wondered about the issue. It's made me more aware of my future flying environments and to try and avoid the issue in the first place. Could you have hand caught it ?
Nice . Good one there
Turn the drone on, turn it upside down while the motor is running
I flew my drone at almost 19500 ft above sea level in India (Himachal Pradesh). Guess what? It survived and behaved normally
Now that's using your head for more than a hat rack. 👍
nice to know, i got 2 drones of my own and hand launch and land as much as possible.
Thankyou❤
i like your smooth voice bratan ;)
Haha Vollidiot :D
Wie hast du das gefunden?
Hand catch for Dji Mini 3 Pro is the only solution to avaid any landing damage.
i am a 12 year old and i m flying my dji mini 2 for over 1 year and i never crashed
Sweet! Keep it up :D
Thank you that was helpfull , same happent to me
So its important to use a helipad mat or do hand take offs and landings to avoid debris? I also saw some cover caps for the motors, but the manual tells not to block, cover the motor vents. Not sure what to do on that matter. Some say its fine to use on YT, but I dont know if they just promote the sale of that aftermarket parts,or that dji likes to keep it open so people need to have repair or replacement of motors to do
Nice video really help me u deserve 1+ subscribers❤
I just turned my drone upside down and rotated the motors back and forth, didn't take long before the sand had fallen out.
My problem seemed to be magnetic particles that were stuck and wouldn't just fall out. But for simple sand this should do the trick :)
Try an actual air compressor next time, much more air pressure than canned air.
With my 5" builds I just turn the motors a few times by hand and all the dirt grinds out of them. If its metallic dust stuck to the magnets then I remove the bell and dab it with blutac over and over sucking up the metal and dust particles onto the blutac.
good tip!
use a vacuum cleaner not compressed air.. now you realy need to take the motors apart to get all the sand out... best thing for you is a set of motor covers... covers keep sand out and 99% of other dirt and dust 200.
Great share ❤
Thanks for this video!
Congrats saving the drone! I would use my 8 bar hobby compressor to blow out the debrief.
Flying my new DJI Mini 3 PRO for the first time today...
Time 01:49. I unintentionally got into, and tangled up in that start up check stuff and tried "everything" and somehow got through it. What's the action expected by the drone in that sequence?
Bravo 😀👏👏👏👏👏